Stellar Collision

Chapter 20

Universe B, Bean Tree Cafe

"Absolutely not!" The Doctor argued. "That is a terrible idea and you're not doing it."

Dayle looked at him like he had lost his damn mind. "I'm sorry?" Her eyes narrowed. "I seem to remember something about being a grown ass woman and I'm pretty sure you won't be telling me what I am or am not doing."

She got up from the booth and stormed out, tossing her empty paper cup in the trash can near the door. It was early morning and it had all the makings of a beautiful day. They'd walked a few blocks from the apartment to a little cafe for breakfast.

The night before had been Dayle's first night sleeping on the TARDIS and she'd been dumbfounded by the fact that the TARDIS had created a room just for her. As she lay on the soft pillows on the comfortable bed trying to fall asleep in a room that had been configured by a dimensionally transcendental time machine, she'd formulated what she had to do.

Over coffee, Dayle had told the Doctor her plan.

The Doctor followed her out of the cafe, still adamant. "A thousand things could go wrong. If Jesse is Arc, he could potentially detect that you aren't the Dayle from this universe. There's no telling what sort of technology he has at his disposal. No. It's too dangerous. I will find a way to handle this."

Dayle stopped at the corner, waiting for the light to change to cross. She turned to him.

"Doctor." She began calmly. "If he takes one look at you, he will for sure know who and what you are. I have two advantages. I'm identical to the woman he lives with and I'm a friggin psychic. Just give me a couple hours with him and we will find out for certain if he's human or Zygon." She looked into his eyes, trying to convince him.

His jaw was set as they crossed the street. "No. No way. My Sonic can get a reading on him just as well as your little gift can." They'd reached the other side of the street. He reached into his right jacket pocket and froze. He checked his other pocket, patted around his pants, panicking.

Dayle began to giggle. "Uh oh. Are you missing something there Time Lord?" Served him right for being so condescending about her "little gift."

"Dayle this is not at all funny. I've misplaced my Sonic Screwdriver. We are going to have to retrace our steps and find it immediately." His hands went to his head.

She smirked. "Ok, while you're doing that, I'm going to go talk to Dayle about trading places with her this evening." She began walking back to the apartment building.

He followed grumpily. "I'm going to go look around the TARDIS. And when I find my Sonic Screwdriver, I will deal with this situation the right way. As quickly and as safely as possible."

They'd reached the lot and stopped just short of the cloaked TARDIS.

He sighed and tried again to reason with her. "Do you really think Dayle B is going to respond well to this theory of yours? That she'll just agree to let you go on a date with her boyfriend to find out if he's a metamorphic creature?"

"Yes, actually I do. Because if she's like any other woman, she'd probably rather him end up being an alien than a cheater." She crossed her arms.

"Let's look around for the Sonic, eh?" he pleaded. "If we can't find it, then... we'll try your way." He was reluctant to give in even that much.

She rolled her eyes but nodded.

Universe B, Dayle B's Apartment

They were all seated around the dining room table. The Doctor had his arms crossed and was demonstrably not pleased.